Category: Moving People

Informa Tech will buy Canalys

Canalys Forum EuropeCanalys is to be acquired by Informa Tech with the deal completed in the third quarter of this year.

Informa Tech said the acquisition will mean it will now be the world’s biggest channel research and consulting group.

Gary Nugent, CEO of Informa, said: “Channel and Mobility are two incredibly exciting areas for our industry, where technology, supply chains and ways of going to market are ever-evolving. Over 70 percent of all business technology is sold via the Channel and this is why it is of huge importance to our customers.”

Steve Brazier, the CEO of Canalys said: “We have lived and breathed Channel and Mobility for 25 years while growing into other spaces such as Automotive. Now by combining with Informa Tech, and specifically leading brands Omdia, Channel Partners and Channel Futures, we have the platform to offer our clients even greater breadth and depth of expertise on a global scale. We are looking forward to working together to shape the future of technology research.”

No financial details are provided.

Amazon Web Services loses Chris Vonderhaar

Amazon Web Services has lost its top cloudy executive Chris Vonderhaar who was the bloke who planned, designed and constructed AWS’ data centres.

For those who came in late, AWS datacentres power the $85bn cloud company’s infrastructure and cloud services.

Vonderhaar had been with the company for nearly 13 years in top cloud infrastructure roles and it is unclear why he has left. In 2021, it was thought that Vonderhaar would be a successor to former AWS CEO Andy Jassy, recently promoted to CEO of Amazon.

In addition to leading the Amazon subsidiary’s datacentre global strategy, Vonderhaar was responsible for business development and procurement of utility connections, the AWS renewable energy portfolio, and AWS sustainability teams and business, according to his LinkedIn profile.

NTT DATA taps Oliver Bridges

IT services outfit NTT DATA has appointed Oliver Bridges as its new Head of Energy Data as part of its investment into its Energy & Utilities practice.

Bridges has worked as Head of Data Science and Analytics at Smart DCC, a smart meter network provider connecting over half of Britain’s homes. As part of this role, Bridges used his end-to-end knowledge of Smart DCC’s solution to develop and maintain a nationwide ecosystem of smart meters.

Before Smart DCC, Bridges held the position of Technical Analyst for Centrica, working on the front line of their smart meter rollout, before moving on to help design the data component for Britain’s national smart metering solution.

Rubrik names Keech VP United Kingdom and Ireland

Security outfit Rubrik has named Toby Keech Vice President for the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Keech has been told to focus on expanding Rubrik’s data security leadership across the region, further developing the company’s sales strategy and go-to-market function.

He has been in the business for 20 years and joins Rubrik from Zscaler, where he has spent the last four years leading UK&I and MEA business units. Before this, he held senior sales roles at several technology businesses, supporting these organisations through acquisitions by the likes of NetApp and HP.

He said that ransomware continues to threaten the UK&I economy due to expanding attack surfaces are expanding and a need for organisations to protect more data.

Keech said he was excited to join an already fantastic team and continue to support our UK&I customer base to secure their data.

Aruba channel chief is retiring

Aruba worldwide channel chief Donna Grothjan is retiring after 30 years.

Aruba Head of worldwide sales Alain Carpentier announced Grothjan’s departure, effective at the end of May, at Aruba’s Atmosphere conference in Las Vegas.

Writing in blog Carpentier said it was an understatement to say the company was proud of the unwavering commitment Grothjan has shown to HPE Aruba Networking’s 55,000 partners globally and the broader channel community throughout her career.

“Her focus has always been on helping the channel community adapt to, and thrive in, changing conditions through innovative, partner-focused programs and tools that set our industry’s bar high.”

North appoints Crawford as new CEO

North has announced the appointment of David Crawford as its new chief executive officer.

Crawford replaces Glen Williams, who stepped down at the end of last year after almost two years in the role.

Crawford joins from European telecoms infrastructure company Cellnex Telecom where he was responsible for integrating the business into the group operating model, developing key customer relationships and driving local organic and inorganic growth.

Richardson quits as AMD’s channel chief

AMD North America Channel Chief Terry Richardson is leaving the company after more than 30 years of working in the channel and is believed to be retiring.

Richardson, a 30-year-plus channel veteran who has also held top channel jobs at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP and EMC, joined AMD two years ago and helped build it a robust network of partners.

Richardson’s departure on April 18 comes just three weeks after AMD Head of North America VAR Channels & Commercial Distribution Marty Bauerlein left AMD to take the newly created role of chief commercial officer at D&H Distributing.

Richardson was one of the most respected channel leaders in the business and he is widely attributed with giving AMD achieve a channel footprint it would not have been able to attain without him.

 

Agilitas loses chief marketing officer

Agilitas IT Solutions has announced that its chief marketing officer, Richard Eglon, will leave the firm after eight years.

He will officially leave the company in August 2023 and wants to spend time with his family after many years managing a busy and fast-paced work schedule.

He joined Agilitas in 2015 as marketing director before being promoted to chief marketing officer in 2021. Eglon built Agilitas’ channel services brands, and was responsible for setting and communicating strategic direction and executing go-to-market plans as well as its ESG initiative.

Exertis UK names Tim Griffin new CEO

Exertis UK has appointed Tim Griffin as its new CEO.

The change means Griffin is no longer managing director of parent company, DCC Technology, and willl be replaced by Clive Fitzharris.

Griffin takes direct responsibility for the entire Exertis UK, Retail & B2B operations and oversees other businesses in the UK and Ireland of DCC Technology.

He will also lead a development plan for the business in the UK to drive growth, innovation and market leadership.

“The size of the opportunity in the UK, both now and in the future, is a major prize and I’m excited to be taking the CEO role leading the evolution of our UK business as we drive it onwards to ever-greater success,” Griffin said.

Hutchinson quits SHI after a year

SHI’s UK MD Donavan Hutchinson has today announced he is leaving the reseller after only exactly a year in the role.

Hutchinson was a big appointment for SHI having worked expanding global enterprise experience for  with multinational solutions providers for 20 years.

Hutchinson also left his previous job managing UK/European expansion for Paragon Micro UK after a year.

Before that he worked for PCM for nearly three years. As Managing Director UK/International, he helped grow sales from ground level to $62 million in his first calendarized trading year with second-year revenues surpassing $95 million.

In a LinkedIn post, Hutchinson said he was departing to focus on personal goals.

 

Daisy gets a new money man

Daisy Corporate Services has appointed Kris Lee as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) on 1 February 2023, taking over from Paul Worthington who is leaving the business after 16 years..

Lee will work alongside the senior leadership team to help execute the company’s strategy for continued financial growth.

Lee has more than 25 years’ experience working for privately owned, private equity and public sector organisations. For the last five years, Lee was CFO for Card Factory during which time he helped the company navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, setting it up for future growth. Before that, he was Group CFO of the Edinburgh Woollen Mill for five years. Kris has also held senior finance positions across various sectors including Brighthouse, Phones4U, JD Sports, all:sports, Barclays Bank and BMI

POPX appoints Wood as Chief Product Officer

POPX has appointed ServiceNow executive  Martin Wood as its new Chief Product Officer.

Wood had been working for ServiceNow for more than 13 years. He finished his work with the now 20,000-strong company as the Director of Product Management for Impact.

While at ServiceNow, Wood was responsible for building and launching product lines, including the ServiceNow HealthScan, a platform review tool. He led the team to analyse millions of health data points to create appropriate scoring mechanisms that produced a multi-million-pound impact.

At POPX, Wood has a focused remit across product and customer outcomes that will refine the POPX offering by continually developing a product strategy and innovation roadmap. He is responsible for customer success and will create a value framework dedicated to helping clients extract the maximum value from their investment in ServiceNow.

Wood said: “My priority has always been to ensure that the customer experience is as good as it can be and that we’re continuously driving better outcomes that translate to real business value. It was immediately clear to me that the team at POPX spoke the same language and shared the same passion and vision. The organisation has been designed to deliver the highest standard of service, facilitated by their agility. This rapid response capability allows for quick decision-making that can disrupt the market.”

POPX CEO Martin Ford said Wood was a pivotal hire for POPX, given his vast experience with ServiceNow, and he brings new knowledge to how customers can outperform their competitors.

“We are lucky to have him and know that our growing client base will welcome his addition to the team. This appointment accelerates our strategy to help tech service providers transform their operations as efficiently, scalable and profitable as possible.”

 

Nokia has new European head

The former rubber boot maker Nokia announced that Rolf Werner has joined the company as the Senior Vice President of its European region,

Werner joined Nokia from Cognizant Technology Solutions, where he was the CEO of Germany, with responsibility for the DACH region. DACH is a top three region for Cognizant Technology, and under his leadership, the company delivered double-digit growth for the region, including the acquisition of ESG Mobility.

During his career, Werner has held senior positions at Fujitsu, Global Logic, and T-Systems, where he led the turnaround of T-Systems’ French organisation across the whole organisational framework.

Heading Nokia’s Europe Region, Werner will help drive Nokia’s already significant growth and market share. The company hopes Werner will improve relationships with key European customers and support the company’s growth ambitions into new market segments.

Rubrik appoints Microsoft top cat to board

Insecurity experts Rubrik have  appointed former Microsoft chairman and Symantec CEO John Thompson as its lead independent director.

Thompson brings more than 40 years of leadership experience in the technology industry. His claim to fame is that he succeeded Sir William Gates III as chairman of Microsoft’s board and now serves as its lead independent director.

Previously, Thompson was the chairman and CEO of Symantec and currently serves as the chairman of Illumina’s board.

Rubrik co-founder and CEO, Bipul Sinha said that his outfit had built an elite leadership team of cybersecurity experts across public and private sectors to better equip our customers in the ongoing battle against data threats such as ransomware.

“Thompson is a cybersecurity pioneer. His proven leadership and experience building iconic companies will help us continue to deliver data security innovations and define the future of cybersecurity.”

 

VirtualDCS brings Jeniya Klimova onboard

VirtualDCS has a new channel account executive.

IT backup, recovery and data management expert, Jeniya Klimova, who has spent the past five years working at global software company, Veeam, has joined the team at cloud computing and disaster recovery specialists, virtualDCS, as a channel account executive.

The company has changed its course to focus on providing infrastructure, backup and disaster recovery services which provide UK data sovereignty, to IT partners that want to offer cloud-based backup services to their clients and end-users.

VirtualDCS CloudCover services feature best of breed solutions from Veeam, which is the world leader in backup, recovery and data management solutions that deliver modern data protection.